Hello friends
I hope your week is going well, I am doing pretty good 🙂
Here is another page from my Teesha Moore inspired journal, I am totally hooked on this at the moment…
I don’t have time to write a blog post at the moment, it’s late and I need to get to bed, but I hope you like my page. I showed my journal to one of my friends and he said “It’s a bit ‘freaky’ and a bit weird”. Oh well that’s me I guess 😉
See you soon
Big love
AJ 🙂
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGEHello friends
I am in desperate need of some bright colours at the moment so here is another page from my Teesha Moore inspired journal. The image of the pig and the ‘Who says pigs can’t fly’ slogan were cut out of a ‘pigalogue’ I received at work. There is a company is called Pig, they sell spill kits and absorbant materials, they list all their products in a pigalogue instead of a catalogue – I love that. The little pig has been sitting on my desk for weeks just waiting for the right time to appear in a piece of art. And this was the page I made especially for him!
I am really fond of pigs in fact for years I tried to persaude my husband to let me have a pet pig, but he argued that a pig would a) grow far too big and b) would dig up his garden. Both of which I’m sure are true. So I have two cats instead, my Bengal Boys, Bill and Jack, and I’m totally besotted by them. I suppose you couldn’t really have a pig sleeping on the bed with you could you? Or could you!? Well maybe if he took a bath first…
So anyway my week has been a tad on the grey and boring side so far, but I’ve been trying to look at all the positives and one BIG positive for me is how much I love this style of journaling. When my day got so dull I just wanted to bang my head against the desk, I got out my journal, looked through it and thought ‘Now that’s not dull, that’s really bright and juicy, and I did it ‘! It’s such a shame I can’t actuallty do any art while I’m at work, but looking at my journal lifts my spirits anyway.
I shouldn’t really involve myself in other people’s politics but I have to admit that when I heard the news this morning that Obama had been re-elected that brought a smile to my face too. I feared that the alternative would have been such bad news for the US and the world.
Well I hope you are all having a great week, I am going to give myself a good talking to and ensure I enjoy the rest of mine.
See you soon
Big love
AJ 🙂
Something weird is happening to my computer this is the third time of posting this, the first two times it just disappeared! Let’s hope it’s third time lucky!
Hello friends
I hope you are all well. Well this weekend went by in the blink of an eye and it’s back to work tomorrow!
Still I managed to get some art done and even some housework too (that’s almost unheard of)! I am really loving the Visionary Journaling that Teesha Moore taught at the Call of the Wild Soul Art Retreat and I am now working on the back of the pages I started in her class. This is my favourite page so far. My husband likes it too which is high praise from someone who hardly ever comments on my art.
Actually that is not strictly true, I recently finished three A4 size canvases painting in the way that Flora Bowley taught us (also at COTWS) and he is insisting that they are hung in our dining room. I guess I must be getting better at this art game 🙂
Anyway apologies for the short post but I have a mountain of ironing to do before tomorrow and I also have a presentation to prepare for a talk I am giving next Friday about some of the historical people from my town.
I hope all is good with you, everything is Tickety Boo here.
Big love
AJ 🙂
(Fingers crossed the post stays in place this time)
Hello friends
Sorry I missed posting on Sunday because I was sick – same thing as happened to me when I was on the Art Retreat, blinding headache and sickness only this time much worse and I spent two whole days in bed! But I am much better now and went back to work today, so it’s time to catch up 🙂
This is the second page that I started in Teesha Moore’s workshop and I finished it yesterday. I really do like this way of journaling, it’s so different to my usual style – it’s bold, sassy and ‘in your face’. I like doodling all over my pages, but I think I need to try some different styles, I seem to be stuck on the same few motifs at the moment 😉
I am going to link this page to Challenge 2 of Fall Fearless & Fly over at Artists in Blogland.
This time the prompts are:
Headline prompt:Â Taking a Chance, Color prompt: What color do you like least? Use it! Quote prompt: Don’t refuse to go on the occasional Wild Goose chase – that’s what wild geese are for. Anonymous
Click on the link Fall Fearless & Fly for more information and the rules.
My page is all about taking chances and doing something different, I’ve used combinations of colours I wouldn’t normally use and I picked my quote because it seemed to fit with the image on the page and also it made me laugh because I misread it at first as “To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily, not to dare is to lose ones elf”  Well you wouldn’t want to lose your Elf now would you? You’d be lost without it!
Take care everyone and I’ll see you soon
Big love
AJ 🙂
Hello friends
I hope you are having a great weekend. Yesterday we had bright sunshine and a cool breeze and today we have torrential rain and a howling wind! I need to go out later but I have just remembered that my raincoat is in my car so I’m going to get wet running from the house to the car. That’ll teach me!
For this spread I decided to use a colour I wouldn’t normally use and I think green is probably my least favourite colour to use in my art. I went through my box of scrap papers and selected pieces with green on them and then just collaged them onto the pages of the journal. The green, Tim Holtz compass was already there so I just decided to frame it. There is no paint at all on this spread, after sticking down the paper I doodled and even did a bit of journaling (which I hardly ever do). This is an unusual spread for me and really reflects that I am not entirely feeling myself at the moment.
Despite my best endeavours I have to admit I have been getting stressed about the work situation. The company has decided to make changes which is fair enough, but little, if any thought, has been given as to how to implement the change. I still don’t know who I am reporting to, what my hours are or, more importantly, who to hand over all the work I have been doing to. Of course my colleagues who I work with locally all expect me to carry on doing the old job until it’s sorted out, but I don’t see how I can do that. I have already started doing the new, and totally exciting, new job of data inputting. It’s not difficult to do but I have to input the information as and when I receive it and that seems to be pretty constant. The tension has aggravated the ongoing problem I have with my neck and I’ve had a headache for the past 4 days.
My husband has been very sympathetic and telling me that it’s not my problem and rather than getting myself stressed about it I should just hand the problem back to the people who made the decision to do away with my job in the first place. It sounds good in principle but I’m not sure how easy that will be in practice! Still I only have to get through Monday and Tuesday at work then I am on leave again for a few days. On Thursday I am off to the Call of the Wild Soul Art Retreat and don’t return to work until October 2. Hopefully it will all be sorted out by then.
I am so looking forward to the Art Retreat and I think it will do me good to be in a completely different environment, centred around art, for a few days.
I will try and post one more post on Wednesday before I go.
See you all soon
Big love
AJ 🙂
Hello friends
This is (fanfare of trumpets and drum roll) my 100th post!
Who’d have thought when I uploaded my first post that I’d still be here now? Not me! If I had more time I’d organise a party, but honestly I’ve got so much to do before September 6.  Ryde Social Heritage Group is having it’s 10th Anniversary celebrations. I just need to keep doing things and ticking them off on my massive ‘To Do’ list so I don’t get stressed about it.
You know being creative and posting to this blog has been so beneficial to me – I used to be lacking in confidence and now I’m getting braver, I used to worry about lots of things that ‘might happen’ and now I am much more of a ‘go with the flow’ person, I used to get angry about all sorts of things and now I have a much more ‘laid back’ attitude. I feel like a different person, it’s good 🙂 Yesterday I drove from home to the car ferry port, spent almost an hour on the ferry and then drove 40 miles which took another hour. I arrived at the office where I was supposed to be attending a meeting only to be told the meeting had been cancelled the day before. “We sent you an email yesterday (I was on leave yesterday as my ‘Out of Office’ message would have told you) don’t you read your work emails when you are home?” (Um, No!) A few years ago I think I would have been in a rage about this, but I just smiled and said “Oh well” got back in my car and did the trip in reverse. To compensate for my waste of time I popped into Hobbycraft and bought a few supplies so it wasn’t a completely wasted day 🙂
Anyway, I’m rambling, I wanted to thank all of you for your lovely comments and ‘likes’ but especially for sharing your art. The worldwide community of art journalers is so inspiring, friendly and supportive. I am so happy that I can go online and see loads and loads of beautiful art and people sharing and showing their processes, and grateful to you all for the encouragement you have given me.
This spread is from my 6×6 journal, the background was gesso’d and then I used some strange oil pastels (I think) to add colour, they were a bit odd and I wasn’t happy with the result. I looked though my box of cuttings from glossy magazines and selected the images which I collaged on top of the background and then I doodled all over it. I like this spread because it’s colourful, it has fish in it and all the words that are important to me right now.
Enjoy the rest of your week and I’ll be back soon.
Big love
AJ 🙂
Hello friends!
As I am writing this at 7am on Sunday morning the sun is shining through the window, so maybe today we will have some ‘summery’ weather. We are fast approaching the longest day and summer hasn’t started yet! Oh the joys of English weather!
I don’t really mind much, I’m not one for lounging about getting a tan, and despite living on an Island I never swim in the sea (not unless I travel to another Island where the weather and sea are warm), but I do like walking on beaches and I like living near to the sea.
This week at work I organised a meeting to get the whole Island Team (about 40 people) together to share progress on the Employee Engagement Programme. It didn’t turn out as I had hoped and got hijacked by people who wanted to vent their opinions about how bad things are. I have to admit things are not good, but at least the company is trying and there have been some successes which I wanted to share. I couldn’t finish my presentation because of all the interuptions and negativity. I felt quite despondent after the meeting, but then I realised that at least it shows how passionate people are and the negativity wasn’t directed at me personally. It was really hard work though!
Thank goodness for art, at least now I have a way of working through angst and upset so I don’t have to dwell on the negatives. I did my best for the team, but it wasn’t what they wanted, that’s OK, I’ll learn from the experience and move onwards.
The spread above is from a Strathmore Online workshop I did earlier in the year called Doodles Unleashed by Traci Bautista. I have already posted one page here. The spread above is unusual in that I actually did some journaling on it, that’s really rare for me. Anyway it’s a fantastic workshop and it’s free so if you haven’t tried it I recommend you check it out. It will stay online until 1 August 2012 so there is still time. You can find out the details here. There are three workshops available but I only did Traci’s.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone and I’ll be back soon.
Big love
AJ 🙂
Hello friends,
Happy Wednesday!
21 Secrets started on Sunday and I am so excited, there is so much choice I really don’t know where to start. At the moment I am just browsing before I make a decision. The playground is open for 9 months which seems like a long time, but it will soon fly by. In three months last year I only managed to do about 4 of the workshops, so realistically I will probably only complete half of what is on offer this year so I need to choose wisely.
The weather is still sunny here in the UK but not as warm as it was last week. It’s going to be a huge shock when it eventually rains as I can’t remember the last time that happened. I hope it’s not until after the weekend as we have a four day break this weekend for the Easter holidays.
The spread above is from my 6 x 6 journal and was created after I watched a YouTube video on circle fractals, unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the video now and I can’t find it again.  But when I was doodling one day I thought I would give it a go and I really enjoyed it. After I had drawn all the circles I coloured them with my inktense pencils and when they were dry added the white dots and finally the words.
Hope all is good with you
Big love
AJ
Hello friends
What an interesting month that’s been – I gave some presenations at work (something I couldn’t have imagined myself doing a few years ago), we’ve had some sickness, some worries at work, glorious summerlike weather, met Royalty and a fantastic Party on the Pier yesterday.
Above is my completed journal entry for March and below is how it looked at the beginning of the month. I didn’t notice until I got to 12 March but I’d completely messed up with the numbering! No wonder I got myself into such a pickle at work adding things up – sometimes I think I have number blindness, or maybe I’m just plain stupid?! Oh well it all came good in the end.
I hope you had as interesting a month as I did.
Big love
AJ
AJ's Art Journaling 